Demystifying Squash Blossoms
With a recipe from Adriana Cavita's new book, Cocina Mexicana.
“I love the earthy, green flavor,” says Adriana Cavita, the chef of the restaurant Cavita in London, of squash blossoms. “They also remind me of my childhood walking in the markets.”
Cavita, author of the new book Cocina Mexicana: Fresh, Vibrant Recipes for Authentic Mexican Food, remembers lots of these golden flowers around when she was growing up in Mexico. Her grandfather used to grow calabacitas, or small squash, so there were plenty to go around and she would eat them in soups, stews and quesadillas, like the ones from her recipe below.
“I also like to make them stuffed with goat cheese mixed with pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds,” she says. “I just close the flowers, add a bit of plain flour and fry them.”
In many parts of Mexico, you can find them year-round, so they are more commonly used in recipes. In the U.S., I rarely see them in grocery stores and only occasionally in farmers markets. However, this year, I planted a lot of squash and zucchini in my garden, so I’ve found myself with far more of the bright yellow flowers than I ever expected and they keep coming and I don’t know what to do with them all.
When you Google recipes for squash blossoms, stuffed with cheese and fried is usually what comes up. Sometimes they are with goat cheese, like Cavita suggests, or other times with ricotta, mozzarella and Oaxaca cheese. These have been my go-to, as these mild cheeses seem to harmonize with the subtle sweet, slightly bitter flavor.
I’ve learned they are best picked in the morning, as they tend to close up when the sun gets high. While they aren’t overly fragile, the more you handle them the harder they are close up after stuffing. You can blow on them a little bit and they might open that way. My first few attempts I also had issues removing the pistils by hand, so I now use kitchen tweezers to pull them out.
I have been trying to think back of all of the times I’ve seen them. I’ve seen them on tlayudas in Mexico, which inspired me to use them as a pizza topping. At the restaurant Alfonsina in Oaxaca, I once watched Jorge León make a mole with them, alongside pepitas, parsley, garlic, onions and manzano chiles, so I’ve been experimenting in using them in sauces, though none are quite as good as his.
PUMPKIN FLOWER QUESADILLAS from Cocina Mexicana: Fresh, Vibrant Recipes for Authentic Mexican Food by Adriana Cavita
QUESADILLAS DE FLOR DE CALABAZA
This is one of my favorite quesadillas. If necessary, you can replace fresh epazote with coriander/cilantro or parsley – not quite the same, but still tasty. Pumpkin flowers are very popular in Mexican markets, which means that the prices are really good for the amount of flowers they give you. In Europe, on the other hand, they are not as popular so the price can be quite high. They are still worth seeking out and if you grow your own pumpkins you should have a plentiful supply. – Adriana Cavita
150 ml/2⁄3 cup vegetable oil
1 white onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 jalapeño chile, seeds removed and finely chopped
20 fresh pumpkin/squash flowers, stems and pistils removed
20 g/½ cup chopped fresh coriander/cilantro or 10 g/¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
4 tortillas
250 g/3 cups grated/shredded cheese (mozzarella works well, or one that easily melts and is not too strong)
Salt
Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan/skillet over a high heat. Add the onion and cook for 1 minute. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the jalapeño chile and the pumpkin flowers and season with some salt. Cook, stirring continuously to keep everything moving, then lower the heat to medium. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add the coriander or parsley. Taste and add more salt if needed. Transfer to a bowl and keep covered while you prepare the tortillas.
Heat a large, dry frying pan/skillet over a medium-high heat. Warm a tortilla, then add 1–2 spoonfuls of the pumpkin flower mixture and 1 tablespoon of the cheese all over one half of the tortilla. Fold the tortilla in half and cook on both sides until the cheese has melted. Repeat until you have used up all of the tortillas and pumpkin flower mixture. Serve immediately.
VARIATION: Huitlacoche Quesadillas
Huitlacoche is a corn fungus that has been used in Mexican cooking for hundreds of years. It is quite easy to get in Mexico, but not so easy to source elsewhere. Prepare the filling mixture as directed above but replace the pumpkin flowers with 200 g/7 oz. huitlacoche. Continue to make the quesadillas following the instructions above. Substitute with any other mushroom if you cannot get hold of huitlacoche.